When you first
experience pain, it is a symptom
of illness or injury in the
part of your body that is having the pain. The sudden onset of pain is called acute pain. It gets your
attention and prompts you to take action to prevent further worsening of the
condition causing the pain. This could
be a simple action such as the reflex
that makes you jerk your hand off a hot
stove, or it could be more complex such as cooling, resting, or elevating an
injured ankle. Or the pain could
prompt you to see a doctor. We
always take for granted that we will feel good most of the time so when pain
strikes, we feel bad. Pain interrupts
our work, our recreation, and our relationships with our families and disrupts
our daily normal activities. Your basic goal if you are sick is to be
comfortable and not being in pain, likewise the goal of treatment for the
doctor who is treating you for any illness, but especially for an illness
associated with chronic pain. Once the
cause of your pain is found and proper chronic pain treatment is
started, the pain may serve the useful function of keeping you at rest so that
the injury or illness can heal. But if
the pain comes from an illness that is incurable and will never heal, the pain
losses its usefulness and becomes harmful.
This type of pain keeps you from normal daily activities and inactivity
decreases your strength.
